The poor health status of Australia's Indigenous people is well-documented, as are the links between health and education. Aboriginal communities recognise the utmost importance of improving educational, physical, social and economic well-being in an environment where disproportionate numbers of Aboriginal students fail to complete secondary…

In 2002 the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Technology Sydney began a major initiative to improve the participation of Indigenous Australians in the Information Technology (IT) sector. This followed an initial study which showed that very few Indigenous students undertook studies in IT at university and therefore few found…

This paper explores Aboriginal perspectives of tertiary education "online" from rural and remote community locations in New South Wales. It does so within a frame of enquiry as to how neo-liberal educational policy reforms are impacting on equity issues in distance education "online". Accounts from Aboriginal university students in health point to…

This article explores an integrative framework for a motivational psychology for the education of Indigenous students. Drawing on and adapting Graham's (1994) taxonomy for motivational psychology, it is suggested that enhancing the educational outcomes of Indigenous students involves addressing factors relevant to the self (positive identity,…

Recent reports on Indigenous education have revealed that high proportions of students have been placed in special classes for intellectual disability or behaviour disorders. This is not an isolated phenomenon. Indigenous students in Canada and Romani children in Europe are also disproportionately represented in special schooling. This paper asks…

Education Queensland's Remote Area Incentives Scheme (RAIS) is intended to provide financial and other benefits to teachers who choose to accept employment in undesirable locations in the state. On paper, this scheme claims that remoteness from an urban centre is the foremost measure of a school's undesirability. However, the percentage of…

Australian children's literature has a history of excluding Indigenous child readers and positioning non-Indigenous readers as the subject. Rather than portray such literature, particularly before the 1950s, as simply racist or stereotypical, I argue that it is important for teachers, of all students, to help readers understand how nationalist or…

This paper draws on findings from a major research project conducted between 1998 and 2000 on meanings of reconciliation in the school education sector. Using data collected from surveys and drawing from the community context in which schools exist, it explores and analyses meanings of reconciliation within school communities when the discourse of…

Indigenous academic researchers are involved in Indigenist, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, all of which present problems and opportunities for Indigenous knowledge traditions. "Transdisciplinary" research is different from "interdisciplinary" research because it moves beyond the disciplinarity of the university and takes into…

In July 2003 an important one-volume text, "Forget about Flinders: A Yanyuwa atlas of the south west gulf of Carpentaria" (Yanyuwa Families, Bradley & Cameron, 2003) produced in a limited edition of 14 copies, returned to Yanyuwa country and to the families who collaborated with John Bradley and artist Nona Cameron on the project. Subsequently, a…

Illustrating contexts for and voices of the Indigenous humanities, this essay aims to clarify what the Indigenous humanities can mean for reclaiming education as Indigenous knowledges and pedagogies. After interrogating the visual representation of education and place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, the essay turns to media constructions of…

This article explores the Sami philosophy of the gift as a basis for a transformative pedagogical framework. Grounded on the Sami land-based worldview, this philosophy calls for the recognition and reciprocation of gifts, whether gifts of the land, interpersonal gifts or giftedness of an individual. In particular, the article considers two Sami…

The purpose of this exploratory article is to illustrate the worldview, epistemology and relationship with the natural world from a Nehithawak (Woodlands Cree) perspective. The contents of the article represent a personal narrative of an educator of Woodlands Cree cultural heritage from the Reindeer Lake area of northern Canada. A brief history of…

This paper is grounded on the premise that research, as a colonising practice, needs constant reconceptualisation and rethinking. I propose a methodology based on some of the values, visions and stories from my own Maya Indigenous culture and knowledge in addition to other Indigenous cultures across the world. I argue that researchers need to…

Since humanities arise from a specific place and from the people of that place, this article will focus on Peacemaker's revolutionary teachings about the seed of law. Long before the people from across the ocean arrived here on Turtle Island (North America) there was much warfare happening. According to John Mohawk (2001, para. 1), an Iroquoian…